This book examines the artistic, cultural, and historical influence of Giorgio Vasari's teachers, mentors, and patrons on his sacred and profane paintings. As a Maniera artist, Vasari learns to admire and assimilate the art of the ancient masters. With the guidance of Dante's literary writings and Marsilio Ficino's Neoplatonic philosophy, Vasari reveals a moral and didactic vision in his art. Additionally, Vasari's artistic patronage is influenced by the political views of Niccolò Machiavelli. In the integration of both ancient art and myths with the didactic legacy of biblical figures and moral personifications, Vasari manifests his artistic theory and symbolism in his sacred and profane paintings.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Giorgio Vasari brings together the world's foremost experts on Vasari as well as up-and-coming scholars to provide, at the 500th anniversary of his birth, a comprehensive assessment of the current state of scholarship on this important-and still controversial-artist and writer. The contributors examine the life and work of Vasari as an artist, architect, courtier, academician, and as a biographer of artists. They also explore his legacy, including an analysis of the reception of his work over the last five centuries. Among the topics specifically addressed here are an assessment of the current controversy as to how much of Vasari's 'Lives' was actually written by Vasari; and explorations of Vasari's relationships with, as well as reports about, contemporaries, including Cellini, Michelangelo and Giotto, among less familiar names. The geographic scope takes in not only Florence, the city traditionally privileged in Italian Renaissance art history, but also less commonly studied geographical venues such as Siena and Venice.

One of the principal resources for study of Italian Renaissance art and artists, Vasari's Lives offers colorful, detailed portraits of the era's most representative figures. This single-volume edition spotlights 8 prominent artists.

Vasari's Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects are and always have been central texts for the study of the Italian Renaissance. They can and should be read in many ways. Since their publication in the mid-sixteenth century, they have been a source of both information and pleasure. Their immediacy after more than four hundred years is a measure of Vasari's success. He wished the artists of his day, himself included, to be famous. He made the association of artistry and genius, of renaissance and the arts so familiar that they now seem inevitable. In this book Patricia Rubin argues that both the inevitability and the immediacy should be questioned. To read Vasari without historical perspective results in a limited and distorted view of The Lives. Rubin shows that Vasari had distinct ideas about the nature of his task as a biographer, about the importance of interpretation, judgment, and example - about the historian's art. Vasari's principles and practices as a writer are examined here, as are their sources in Vasari's experiences as an artist.

“Readers curious about the making of Renaissance art, its cast of characters and political intrigue, will find much to relish in these pages.” —Wall Street Journal Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was a man of many talents—a sculptor, painter, architect, writer, and scholar—but he is best known for Lives of the Artists, which singlehandedly established the canon of Italian Renaissance art. Before Vasari’s extraordinary book, art was considered a technical skill, and artists were mere decorators and craftsmen. It was through Vasari’s visionary writings that Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo came to be regarded as great masters of life as well as art, their creative genius celebrated as a divine gift. Lauded by Sarah Bakewell as “insightful, gripping, and thoroughly enjoyable,” The Collector of Lives reveals how one Renaissance scholar completely redefined how we look at art.

Gives accurate and reliable summaries of the current state of research. It includes entries on philosophers, problems, terms, historical periods, subjects and the cultural context of Renaissance Philosophy. Furthermore, it covers Latin, Arabic, Jewish, Byzantine and vernacular philosophy, and includes entries on the cross-fertilization of these philosophical traditions. A unique feature of this encyclopedia is that it does not aim to define what Renaissance philosophy is, rather simply to cover the philosophy of the period between 1300 and 1650.

This book focuses on the aesthetic, symbolic, and cultural concepts of radiance and beauty in stained glass in modern art; global exchanges between stained-glass artists in Europe and the Americas; and the transformation of stained glass from religious decoration to secular material culture. Unique features of the book include its geographic breadth, encompassing England, France, Italy, USA, and Mexico, and its inclusion of American female glassmakers. Essays consider how stained glass became an art form during this time, and show how the narrative for the figurative design drew from the Bible, mythology, history, literature, and the symbolism of the time, including popular culture such as ecology and materiality. Written for students and the general public interested in the humanities, literature, history, art history, and new media and popular culture, this book examines the visual beauty and symbolism of stained-glass windows in Europe and American cultures during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – the modern era.